the Demolition in the least obftru&t our Trade, because our Commodities will ftill pass through the fame Inland Waters, which they muft if they Gare fent through Dunkirk. If it is eafie for Her Majefty to obtain from the King a free Pallage Custom Free for all Commodities from England, through Dunkirk, to the Auftrian Low Countries, fhe may with the fame eafe Obtain the fame through his other Ports. It will be good News to hear he makes no difficulty of granting fuch a Request, becaufe by the fame Rulé, Her Ma-, jefty may obtain an Alteration in favour of Her Subjects in the Treaty of Commerce, which has been difapprov'd by the Parliament.

If we should at any time be prevented fending our Trade to the Austrian Low-Countries, any other way than through his Dominions, he will then find us under the Neceffity of carrying it on this Way, and demand Toll in a manner fuitable to his great Power and Force; and how fhall we deny it him?

If he should grant us this Paffage Custom-free, it may be bought too dear; for if we dismantle the Town, and leave the Ports undemolish'd, it is in his Power to take Poffeffion of it again at Pleafure; and in cafe of another War we shall be as much annoy'd in our Trade as we were in the two laft, and the Town can be eafily Refortified; he may have a very good View in this: But really I would not have him run the Rifque of it,tho' it may prove fo much for his Advantage; for we all know the Dutch are a fly People, and if the Town fhould be difmantled, and the Port left open, they may come and get the Poffeffion of it, and fortifie it again for their own Ufe, which I know, out of the great Concern he has

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for

for us, and the Welfare of our Trade, he would be utterly against.

As to his Third, It is a falfe Affertion to say that there is no other Port ferviceable to the Trade of French Flanders, Hainault, Artois, or Picardy, for there are many useful to this Trade, Oftend, Newport, Graveling, and Calais, whofe Waters run into the fame Canals that that of Dunkirk does, befides Boulogne, Eftaples, St. Valery and Diep; for the Trade to Picardy, all thefe Ports are capable of receiving as large Veffels as ever we made use of in this Trade, which are from 20, 60 or 100 Tuns at most.

As to the Sieur's Fourth, It is well known the Trade may be profitably carried on by other .. Places than Dunkirk; and an Eafe of Charge for fo inconfiderable a part of our Trade is not to be mentioned, in Competition with the hazard of fo great a part as, on a Rupture with France, that Place can moleft; the rest of this Article is already answer'd, because other Ports can convey our Trade to any Place that Dunkirk can.

As to Mr. Deputy's Fifth, If the Treaty of Commerce has preferved the Tariff of 1671 in the Conquer'd Countries, it is preferv'd to Graveling, and other Ports there, as well as Dunkirk.

As to the Sieur's Sixth, The Stress he lays on the Lift of 218 Ships which was printed in the Mercator, No. 29, with their Cargoes, has no Weight in it,becaufe thofe Ships might have gone to the Neighbouring Ports; he is also unjust in arguing from that Lift, that the Trade of England there will very much Increase: Whoever looks over the Mercator, will find that their Loading

ed int

5, has

Caveg

Loading confifted chiefly of Food and Firing, the whole he values at two Millions of French Livres; the Coals indeed they may always take, as they will other Commodities that Neceffity obliges them to, and which they have not of their own Growth or Manufacture, but a conftant Market of this kind is not to be expected; it is not to be fuppofed, because they took thefe Quantities of Corn and Provifions of us in their late famifh'd Condition, that they will do the fame when they have plentiful Crops, and this whole Sum is but rco cool. Sterling, of which the Provifions amount to at leaft 3 Quarters. Their Trade to us ftanding in a manner upon the Foot of a Prohibition, they could not well pay us any otherwife than with ready Money; but if the Treaty of Commerce should pafs, and the Port of Dunkirk remain as it is, the Dunkirkers will foon find Commodities to fupply us with, tho' they have none of their own Growth. Mr. Tugghe does not do us Juftice in this part of the Memorial, because he omitted to tell us of the Combination of Merchants, who made our People take their own Prices for our Goods, which were fold to Lofs, rather than to bring them back again through the Rifque of the Seas, and to run the Danger of their being Damaged, and of their Perithing. There might be other Obfervations made from their want of Corn, of the Advantage we might have taken of their Low Condition.

As to this Agent's Seventh, Mr. Tuggle with great Piety and Charity towards us, prays to of God to avert a War between us and Holland, and reprefents a great many Dangers in it in regard to our Trade with French Fanders, Hai

that it

Lo

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nault,

nault, Artois, and Picardy, which is already anfwer'd, because other Ports can supply them as well as Dunkirk. Now if we should turn the other fide of the Matter, I wonder what Danger the Memorialift would reprefent us from another War with France.

As to the Sieur's Eighth, This Article is falfe, as is already proved; nor do we want him to teach us our Trade to Germany who would perfwade us it is our Intereft to Trade thither through Dunkirk by Land-Carriage, whofe Waters have not any Correfpondence with the Rivers of Germany, and to ere& Staples and StoreHoufes, which would be a good Booty for the French in cafe of a Rupture; nor can we ever carry it on fo fafely or cheaply through Countries poffeffed by France, as we do through Hamburg, and other Places, by Water Carriage.

As to his Ninth, He has here the Infolence to call it a severe Refolution in the Queen to infift on the Demolition. This is objected to in Answer 2. But his Affertion, that it is absolutely Neceffary to the Trade of Great Britain, is the Reverse of our Cafe.

As to the Memorialift's Tenth, It is neceffary for all Ships to have a Lee Port to flie to if they cannot get to Windward, or weather a Storm; but All fuch as, have any tolerable Skill in Navigation, know, that our Ships keep their own Shoar abroad, as the French do theirs; and therefore the Port of Dunkirk is useless to us. I would fain know, what use our Ships had of that Port for above twenty Years laft paft. Mr. Tugghe, I am fure, can tell us what English Ships ever refitted there, and how many ever repair'd

t is neces

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repair'd Loffes; all the World know there have been many Hundreds refitted there to annoy our own Country, and fome Thoufands fuffer'd Loffes there that were never repair'd. It is a moft defirable Port for the Ships of France, but all English Ships have dreaded it for above twenty Years. The Publick Joy the News of its being to be Demolish'd created this Nation, is a convincing Argument, how much they will in vain Regret, as well as all other Nations trading to the Northward, that Harbour of Safety. It raifes fomething more than Indignation to fee a Magiftrate of Dunkirk, fent to talk to the Queen of Great Britain, and dictate Rules of Humanity.

it will be a great A&t of Humanity to infift upon the Demolition of that Town, which has deftroyed fo many Thousand of her Majesty's Subjects and their Ships.

This is all I have to fay to my Foreign Enemy the Sieur Tugghe, and humbly recommending to his Moft Chriftian Majefty the Care of the eighteen thousand Families, I take the liberty to repeat to him, that the British Nation expect the Demolition of Dunkirk. I am now to face about to my Domeftick Foes, by whom I am accus'd of the Ingratitude of infulting my Prince, while I am eating her Bread.

Mr. Bailiff, It is fo far otherwife, that to avoid the leaft Appearance of it, I did not attempt doing what proceeded from a true Grateful and Loyal Heart, (viz.) the laying before her Majesty's Ministry, that the Nation had a ftri& Eye upon their Behaviour, with relation to Dunkirk; before I had refigned all, which teir Interpofition with her moft Gracious Ma

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jesty